Miranda after
by FeniFiction
Summary: 3 years after the war and Miranda has moved on until someone comes to visit.
1. Chapter 1

Mass Effect 3 – Shepard and Miranda fan fiction

3 years after the battle for earth,

Miranda stepped through the door of her house to wild shrieks of laughter as her daughter Hope ran about the living room with her new toys. It just so happened the Hope had been born on Miranda's birthday and so now there shared the same date. Miranda sat down on the sofa and watched Hope as she giggled and laughed. She was always reminded of how much she looked like her father. It had been three years since the battle for earth and there wasn't a day that went by when Miranda didn't miss Shepard but she always managed to smile when she saw Hope. She only wished that Shepard had living long enough to see his daughter, their child. The child who she was convinced she could never have and it had been the bitter-sweet memory to Shepard and his sacrifice.

It was getting further on into evening and Miranda had put Hope to bed, who was worn out after her tiresome day. Miranda walked into the kitchen and tried to think what to do with the rest of her birthday. Suddenly there was a knock at the door; Miranda wondered who it could be as she walked to the door. There was a fuzzy shape of a person through the opaque glass. She opened the door with a pleasant smile to see a darkened figure who was illuminated from the back by the street lights. The figure was wearing a hoodie so Miranda couldn't see his face but the figure had a familiar smell about him. Miranda couldn't pin it down but it was so familiar it was almost comforting. The darkened form said in a low voice, "May I come in?", in Miranda's head the voice sounded like the pouring of honey over smooth ice-cream. It sounded so soft, smooth and low that it nearly made Miranda melt inside. With-out even conscious thought she stepped aside and the stranger walked into her house. A moment later she awoke to her senses and said, with a touch of defiance, "Who are you". At that point the figure swept back the hood of the jacket and in that instant she knew who it was and she passed out.

She awoke lying down in the living room. She blinked a couple of times and tried to remember the last few seconds before she feel unconscious. It couldn't be but how could it not be; the face tanned and well defined, the rugged facial hair, the dark eyebrows and most of all those penetrating blue eyes. The eyes she had looked into with longing and lust, the eyes that washed all her troubles and fears away like water running down a hill. Yes, in her heart she knew but in her head she couldn't believe it. A few moments later the stranger walked in and she knew it was Shepard.

He was holding a glass of water and he was looking a Miranda with concern in his eyes. She couldn't say how much she had missed that face. She tried to sit up to get a better look at him but the moment her head lifted more than a couple of inches off the seat her vision started to blur and her head started to pound like you'd just blown a fog horn next to your ear. With a moan Miranda's head sank back down and within a second a hand was under her head as it lowered her gentle back down. She opened her eyes and looked at Shepard. She didn't have any words; she reached out her hand and touched his check. Yes it was Shepard alright but in her cool, calculating mind she couldn't be sure. She said in a small voice "Shepard, is it really you". He replied "You always need to be convinced hundred percent don't you", Miranda laughed. It was the first time she had genuinely laughed for a while. Miranda tried to sit up and she felt Shepard's hand on her back helping her up. She looked deep into Sheppard's eyes and she leaned forward to touch him. She couldn't help herself she had to be very, very sure that this was Shepard. She couldn't allow a stranger to confuse her. She reached out a fingertip and traced around his lips, down his check and along his jaw. One last check she told herself. She raked her long fingers through his hairline and halfway along his head there was the bump of a scar exactly where she expected to find it. She leaned into Shepard's face and whispered "I've missed you", before she kissed him.

Miranda kissed Shepard as she had wanted for three years. She wanted to ask him so many questions, about how he escaped death and how he managed to find her but right now her body needed satisfying more. He turned to kiss her neck and she gave way to his caresses. She'd forgotten how much she'd missed this. He picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist. They sank onto the sofa and Miranda couldn't honestly recall how the hours past until she final fell asleep wrapped in Shepard's embrace.


	2. Chapter 2

Shepard and Miranda

Miranda woke up feeling groggy and surprised to find that all her cloths were flung around the living room and she was lying, naked, under one of the rugs that covered the chairs. For a brief moment she wondered how she had got into this mess and then suddenly she realised. She sat bolt upright. Where was he? He couldn't have left? He had to be real? All her fears were laid to rest as she saw the dark mass of sprawling limbs which she knew to be Shepard. She gingerly crawled over to her Shepard's hoodie was lying on the floor, she pulled the smooth fabric over her torso and then, feeling slightly more confided now that she had cloths on, walked over to where Shepard was sleeping and snoring. She crouched down next to him and whispering in his ear:

"Shepard I can offer you more comfortable places to sleep than the floor."

He grunted as he woke up from his slumber saying, "Along as I am with you I don't really mind".

After that remark she smiled to herself and helped Shepard off the floor and offered him his shirt which had been thrown on the floor but he refused to take it. He motioned to the hoodie that Miranda was wearing, "I'd like my Hoodie back please."

"Your joking right," said Miranda with one eyebrow raise.

"Not in the slightest", said Shepard with just the slightest hint of a smile, "Now hand it over."

Miranda couldn't be bothered to argue and so pulled the hoodie over her head. She threw it back at Shepard standing defiantly with her hands by her side saying "You happy now". Shepard with a grin replied "Very!" Miranda couldn't help but smile she walked off upstairs with Shepard in tow.

She arrived upstairs and she crawled under the sheets of her double bed. Shepard got into the other side and she coupled up to him. He put his arms rounder her shoulders and learned in to kiss but she put her two fingers over his mouth and said "you might have been able to sweep me off my feet the first time but no more funny stuff until I learnt how you got off that dam ship."

Shepard after some persuasion agreed to tell his story,

"We had just finished the fight and I saw the admiral lying in front of the viewing window looking out at earth as we circled above it. I was weak from the blood I was losing and so I managed to the muster the strength to go and sit by him. We talked and as his voice began to grow weak he said to me that there was a built in escape pod that could only be unlocked with the key and as he was dying he pressed the small round access chip into my hand saying, "Carry on Shepard, and don't let them forget about what we did. Live your life and remember that you are Commander Shepard, Saviour of earth and you have to fight to protect them. I am proud of you." And with that he passed away. I couldn't deny the old man's last dying request so I crawled over to the last remaining escape pod. I pressed the access chip into the door and fell through it into the small escape pod. Thankfully it had voice activated controls and so I managed to find the emergency medical kit and stop the bleeding slightly. The pod took me to earth and I landed at a small city I couldn't tell you where. I was found and rushed to hospital . I had an emergency operation to remove the pieces of shrapnel in my body and I spent a year in ICU, six months of which I was in a coma. When I finally recovered enough to leave hospital I found odd pieces of work, enough to pay the rent and I spent the rest of the time dedicated to finding out what happened to the rest of my team. More importantly what happened to you Miranda, you were my life aboard that ship and I had to know what had happened to you. Even if you didn't want to see me or even know me I wouldn't have minded. I just had to know that you were safe. I managed to find that you had quit 3 years ago from the Cerberus data base and then I tracked you down to here, which leads me to the present."

Shepard fell silent and Miranda could see that he had been through more than he let on. She clung to him closer and tried to comfort him just with her presence. Miranda suddenly remembered her daughter, the existence of which Shepard had no idea. With a sly smile she got out of bed pulled on a t-shirt which had been left in the draw and beckoned for Shepard to follow her, with a quizzical glance Shepard followed Miranda down the hall to Hope's room.


	3. Chapter 3

Miranda led Shepard down the corridor to Hope's room. Shepard looked into the little room; it was quite a small room decorated in lilac and white paint with small delicate butterflies stencilled on to the ceiling. Shepard saw in the room there was a small dressing table and wardrobe in pale wood. The last thing his eyes fell on was a small bed with a pink cover on it and in the bed was a young child. Shepard couldn't quite understand what he was looking at and the more and more he started at the face of the child, who was lying on her side, the more he could see the features resemble Miranda. The dark hair, the long elegantly traced nose with the high rise of the check bones but there was also something in the small face he couldn't quite place; the slightly thicker set jaw, the curve of the ears. Miranda was watching Shepard's face as he stared at Hope and without saying a word she held his hand and gently walked him into the room. She stopped in front of the bed and rested her head on Shepard's shoulder.

She looked at her daughter and said quietly, in barely more than a whisper, "Meet Hope Shepard, my daughter…and yours."

Shepard seemed to freeze in place. Letting go of Miranda's hand he walked forward to the bed. He knelt down besides the small bed and put his hands on the covers. Hope moved slightly due to a dream and extended her hand out towards Shepard. Shepard looked at the gently curled fingers on his daughter hand and he reached out to brush the fingers. As he gently touched the soft skin a tear fell down his cheek. How could he have missed so much of his daughter's own life? Her first words? Her first steps? As he thought more and more about how much the war had taken away from him he began to grow angry. He quietly stood up from the bed and backed towards the door. He should have never of come back. He turned to walk out of the room. He wanted to leave but he had forgotten that Miranda was still in the room. Miranda looked at him with a questioning gaze. He didn't dare look at her as he pushed past her out of the bedroom into the corridor.

He made it down to the hall way in front the front door before Miranda managed to stop him. She grabbed his arm and forcefully stopped him from moving, making him turn round with a spark of blue biotics pulsating from her hand.

"Why did you come back?!" Miranda almost shouted. "Why are you trying to leave us just after you managed to find us?"

The word "us" stung Shepard. He knew that he wasn't just hurting Miranda but his own daughter as well.

He turned his head away from Miranda's face and said in icy words, "This war tore us apart Miranda, You managed to build a life without me and you had happiness. I could never give that to you."

Miranda softened her grip on his arm and placed her hand on his chest, right over his heart. "Shepard, it wasn't really living. If I hadn't know that I was pregnant before the news that you were announced missing in action then I would have died. I had nothing to live for apart from the small part of you that lived on in Hope. I don't care how much of our lives you have missed due to that stupid war or how much you feel to blame, we both need you as a lover and a father."

As she finished her sentence Shepard knew in his heart that he couldn't leave. He WANTED to be there for Miranda and more importantly his child. A moment of silence passed and in this moment without Miranda or Shepard noticing the door was quietly opened and within a few seconds the cold, steel circle of a gun barrel was placed against the base of his skull and a cool, chilling voice said, "Alright, take it slow Shepard."


End file.
